Sister Stephani Rodriguez: BEST. DAY. EVER.

Okay, more like best WEEK ever, but still! Transfer 3 has definitely been the best transfer on the mission! But this week was the best because.... LACEY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Oh my goodness it was amazing. The best thing ever has been able to see this gospel change her life. She is not the same Lacey I met 3 months ago. I am so proud of her! After her baptism I gave her a CTR ring, just like mine and it was a little small (I asked her mom what her ring size was but I guess she was wrong) but she was SO excited! I told her I could send it back and get her a bigger size and she was like "NO! I love it! I'm not giving it back!!" It was so sweet, I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! It was also super cool because our investigator Catherine got to come to her baptism as well! Lacey and Catherine are on the same volleyball team so having that friendship in and outside of the church has been great! Lacey came to a lesson with us for Catherine this last week and after the lesson lacey goes "When I was speaking I felt really warm in my heart and in my stomach" MISSIONARY WORK IS THE COOLEST!!!!!! We get to see things like Lacey experiencing the Holy Ghost. These little things that as members of the church we take for granted. Lacey is just the best. We taught her about eternal marriage this week and she said "If i ever find someone like me. I mean Mormon and with the same standards" She's just the best! She truly loves this gospel so much and I'm so grateful that I was able to come and see firsthand how it has changed her life.

Another reason why this was the best week ever is cause last Monday was Halloween! Sister Maughan and I aren't really too big of fans of Halloween but we got permission to go to Oneida and carve pumpkins and go shopping at Wal Mart with the Oneida sisters! Sister Christenson and Sister Graver. They have grown to be two of my closest friends! Sister Graver and Sister Maughan were past companions and they're like best friends so we always have so much fun when we're together!!

Also this week we had ZTM in Utica which means... TARGET SHOPPING TRIP!!!! It was awesome, but ZTM was great too! I love meetings with other missionaries. The times I've felt the spirit the most powerfully has definitely been in meetings with other missionaries. The NYUM is filled with so many incredible missionaries!

So many great things happened this week. Justin and Jessica (lacey's brother and mom) both came to Sacrament meeting to support Lacey and her confirmation! The Spirit was so strong in that meeting as it was fast Sunday and the members bore solid testimony of how the gospel has blessed their lives. Lacey never fails to recognize God blessing her. It was such a great meeting for Justin to attend. He is doing so great! Also a lot of the gang came to support Lacey on Saturday! It was awesome!!

Funnies:

So first off, after the baptism we were playing 3 hit kill with the Oneida Elders and Elder Cook ripped his pants!! hahaha that was awesome.

Sister Graver: "Just because they throw tortillas instead of graduation caps, doesn't make them Mexican"

So Sister Maughan was showing Justin some of the pictures in the BOM and he goes "Wait! This has pictures in it? This just got SO MUCH better!!" hahahaha

Also Caleb (he's part of the gang, he's like 4) decided instead of going to the bathroom, he would shave a section of his head! We came over like 10 minutes after that happened, it was hilarious!

Last but not least, Sister Graver. She is always messing with us! So on Monday we were at lunch and she got up so we stole her keys and hid them. And when we were leaving she was searching and couldn't find them and she called us and we were like "did you throw them away?" and she was like "oh no..." and ran inside and started digging through the trash to find her keys! Hahahaha we drove around and just held them out of the window. It was so funny!! She's the best.

Pictures: (warning: I have TONS of pictures this week...)

Our cute pumpkins that we carved